Managing and Mitigating Suffering in the Return-to-Work Process

Abstract

Each year thousands of workers experience a serious illness or injury that necessitates time off work and a subsequent re-engagement with the work environment. In Australia, workers’ compensation legislation mandates the return-to-work (RTW) process is formal, structured, and negotiated between the worker, their employer, health care professionals and their RTW coordinator. How this is executed by those parties directly influences whether the RTW process is supportive and successful, or exacerbates the suffering of returning workers by causing them to feel ostracised, exposed, and vulnerable in their workplace. In this article, we examine how the RTW process can cause physical, emotional, social, and existential suffering for returning workers. We then discuss how the suffering that workers experience can be mitigated by five key factors: clarity of roles in the RTW process, alignment of worker and employer expectations, the advocacy provided by the RTW coordinator, the support provided for the worker’s psychological wellbeing, and the RTW literacy of supervisors and colleagues.

Navigating the Path to Recovery: A Scoping Review of Return to Work Program for Manufacture Workers After Occupational Injury

“…This program serves as an development of the social security program, thereby amplifying the scope of benefits provided (Kurnianto et al, 2023). This program play a crucial role in alleviating the adverse consequences associated with such injuries (Woods and Matthewson, 2021). The primary objective of these programs is to provide comprehensive assistance to individuals as they progress through the process of recuperation, ultimately enabling them to reintegrate into the workforce safely and effectively.…”

Implemented disability-related policies and practices and sustained employment of partially disabled employees: evidence from linked survey and register data

“…These employer differences suggest that organizational-related factors can be important in supporting partially disabled employees to continue in paid work. In occupational health research, there is a growing awareness that the organizational context is important in preventing the early labor market exit of workers with poor health (6)(7)(8). The organizational context is defined as the characteristics of a workplace, including the physical, psychosocial, and organizational structure of a company (6).…”